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Thursday, February 25, 2010

This is a quilt top I made for son #2 after he saw me making a quilt for son #1 and asked me to make him one. He chose a Robert Kaufman 'money' fabric as his focus. I chose unbleahed muslin to go with it and I will have it quilted with thread to match the money that you will be able to see in the muslin parts very well. I think I will choose a $$ sign for the quilting design :) I am going to wait for son #1's quilt to come back to decide if I want to use the same quilter or send this one to someone else.

Here is the quilt top I made for son #1 - he is in college now, so I hope it's back from the quilter's by spring break so I can give it to him :) I pieced a backing for it too in a very modern style. I didn't get a pic of that before I sent it off though. I'll post pics when it comes back from the quilters.

well, here I have just laid out some of the one block wonder blocks to see what it might look like. This isn't the layout I am going to stick with, I just wanted to get an idea. I am going to make this queen size so I have lots more blocks to make (I have about 60 hexagons done so far).

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Here is a picture of my grandma's quilt from the 30's - it was in pretty sad shape when I got it - very stained and LOTS of blocks that had disintegrated. The above pic is after I replaced about 30 blocks - in all, I replaced about 90 blocks and a few pieces of the cotton batting, then soaked it in OxyClean and then laundered it (at the laundromat so as not not use a machine with an agitator). It came out AMAZING! I am very happy with it. There were a few more blocks that fell apart in the wash, but overall it's great! It now resides on Grandma's chair in my living room so I can always admire it. It is 100% hand pieced and hand quilted.I had quite a bit of material left from the fat quarters I bought to repair grandma's quilt that I decided to do a dresden plate - I am using this as a ''doily'' on the quilt at the back of the chair. I completely hand pieced this block. I like it so much, I decided to hand piece my own dresden plate quilt. It will be partially dresden plates and partially ''postage stamp'' blocks to use up the scraps from the repaired antique quilt. I am going to hand piece and maybe I will have the courage to hand quilt it as well. This is nice relaxing work to do on the couch in the evening when it's too late to be running the sewing machine.

Monday, February 22, 2010

I have decided to start a blog to share the quilts I create. This material above is for a one-block-wonder quilt that I just started.To make a one-block-wonder quilt, you need a large print fabric with a large repeat. This fabric has about a 3/4 yard repeat and I needed a little over 4 yards to get my 6 stacks. You cut the fabric into 6 identical sections and stack them together very carefully aligning the print so that when you cut your triangles, they are all 6 exactly the same.

Above is a pic of six 60 degree (equilateral) triangles ready to be sewn into a block. I chose to cut 3.5'' strips to produce 6'' blocks when assembled.Here is those 6 triangles sewn into two half hexagons. I am choosing to sew mine in half hexagon's so that I can sew the whole quilt together in strips instead of sewing hexagons together and dealing with y-seams.Another block, same fabric but entirely different look!And yet another entirely different look! I have 60 blocks done so far (120 half hexagons). I figure I should make at least 100 blocks, maybe 120 - then frame it in a coordinating purple fabric, then the original fabric. I will post more pics as I get into the process of deciding the layout!